BARMM police force member feted by Metrobank Foundation

COTABATO CITY — An officer in the Bangsamoro regional police who helped secure the surrender of 417 local terrorists since 2016 on Thursday received a special award from the Metrobank Foundation, his second from the same institution in six years.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Friday that they take pride from having in PRO-BAR the multi-awarded Col. Jemuel Siason, is one of the Filipinos who received the vaunted Award for Continuing Excellence and Service, or ACES citation, from the Metrobank Foundation during the commemoration of its 45 founding anniversary on Friday in Taguig City.

“Me and my subordinates are proud to have this officer, a dedicated public servant, in PRO-BAR,” Nobleza said, referring to Siason.

Siason, who graduated from the Philippine National Police Academy in 1997, was also involved in the amicable settlement of no fewer than 20 bloody “rido,” or deep-seated conflicts involving big Moro clans, in the past five years.

He was credited several times for his contributions to multi-sector efforts in securing via backchannel talks the surrender in batches since 2016 of up to 417 members of the allied terrorist groups Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters to PRO-BAR and Army units in the autonomous region.

Officials of PRO-BAR said Siason, who hails from Koronadal City, the administrative capital of Region 12, is their present chief of regional staff, whose office is in Camp SK Pendatun in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte.

PRO-BAR covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Marawi, Cotabato and Lamitan that comprises the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Nobleza said Siason received in 2016 an outstanding Filipino policeman award from the Metrobank Foundation, which is related to the ACES citation that he received last Thursday.

The 2016 outstanding policeman award he received from the Metrobank Foundation was the prelude to a five-year evaluation of his accomplishments in the police service as part of the selection process for the grant of ACES to candidate recipients.

Siason said he is thankful to the members of the police units that he had led in the past five years for having supported extensively his peacebuilding and law-enforcement programs as their superior.

He had served as the police director of South Cotabato from 2019 to 2021. The South Cotabato PPO was twice cited by the Philippine National Police as the best from among all provincial police offices in Region 12 during the period.